James spetjce



(No Model.)

J. SPRUCE.

BUTTON.

No. 328,828. Patented Oct. 20, 1885.

N. PETERS. Pnnlwnumnmhcr. wnsmngwu. D. C.

UNITED STATES JAMES SPRUCE, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE SCOVILL PATENT OEEICE.

MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

BUTTON.

SPEIFICATION forming parl'. Of Letters Patent N0.328,823, dated October 20, 1885. Application led June 8, 1885. Serial No. 167,924. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES SPRUOE, of Waterbury, in the county of New'Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Buttons; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear,and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure 1,a perspective sectional view of the button 5 Fig. 2, a horizontal section of the button, showing the spring in place; Fig. 3, a side view of the stud with which the button is adapted to engage.

This invention relates to an improvement in that class of buttons which are adapted to be applied to gloves or like purposes where a temporary locking is desirable, and particularly to that class in which a headed stud is fixed to the one part and a button to the other part, which is constructed with a cavity to pass over the head of the stud, and with a springwithin the button adapted to grasp the stud beneath its head, but with such a yielding hold that the button may be readily removed from the stud by applyingaslight force thereto.

Various constructions of buttons have been made to adapt them to thus grasp the stud by the introduction of wire springs within the button; but these springs have been rigidly held at diametricaily-opposite points within the button, so that the elasticity of the button was limited to the portion of the spring or wire between the said diametrically-opposite points.

" As this diameter is necessarily small,it follows that a great degree of elasticity is required in the spring, or it will set under the bend which is necessary to pass it over the stud. Owing to this extent of bend the spring soon becomes set, and aids little, if any,in'holding the button upon the stud.

The object of my invention is to construct the spring so that a greater amount of elasticity may be obtained; and it consists in a ringshaped spring corresponding to the internal diameter of the button, the ring divided, and

the wire from which it is made of sufficient length to permit the ends to be turned inward ing a pairof spring-fingers across the button'- adapted to yield to pass over the head of the stud, the said fingers bent outward from each other and concentric with 'the hole in the back of the button, the two ends of the lingers beyond the bends brought together to form a support in the central line of the button, and the said bends in the ngers adapted to grasp the stud beneath the head, as more fully hereinafter described.

The button proper is composed of two parts, the back a and the front b. These two parts are united in the usual manner, and are attached by a tubular connection, d, so as to leave an opening from the back side into the button, that the button may pass on over the stud e, the stud seen detached in Fig. 3. The spring within the button, which is adapted to grasp the stud, as seen in Fig. 2, is made from wire and of ring shape, the diameter of the ring portion corresponding to the internal diameter of the button, and so as to lie between the front and back, as seen in Fig. 1. The piece of wire from which the spring is made is of greater length than the circumference oi" the ring, and the two ends are turned inward to form a pair of ngers, f f, which lie centrally in the plane of the ring. These ends extend diametrically across, and toward the opposite side of the ring portion, but stop short of the opposite side, so that the ends take no ixed bearing within the button. At the center an outward bend, g, is made in each finger, forming a space at the center of somewhat lessvdiameter than that of the head of the stud with which the button is to be engaged, but so that as the button is pressed over the stud the fingers will separate, as indicated in broken lines, Fig. 2, to pass the head of the stud, and then after the head is passed will spring inward to grasp the stud beneath the head, the ends of the spring extending beyond the bends and brought together in the central line, and so as to bear against each other, and so that when sufiicient force is applied to remove the button the springs yield to such force, and open to escape from the head. Then the springs return to bring their ends together in the central line. The ring-shaped portion of the spring itself adds materially to the elasticity of the fingers, but the ends of the fingers beingfree, the tingers are much more elastic than if the ends were vheldfast, as in the usual construction.

In making up the button the ring-shaped spring is rst prepared and introduced between the front and back in its proper position, then the front and back closed together. and the button is complete. The ring-shaped body serves to locate the spring in its proper concentric position with the opening in the back of the button, and thus constructed there is no liability of the spring to set, or become displaced or injured in use.

Y From the foregoing it will be understood that I do not claim, broadly, a wire spring formed in the shape of a pair of springs to yield to the introduction of the stud and react to embrace the stud; nor do I broadly claim such a pair of springs when they are formed from the two ends of a ring and introduced between the front and bacl; of the button, as such, I am aware, is not new; but

In a button composed of a front and back closed together, the back having a central opening to permit its being set upon the fastening-stud,'combined with a spring made from wire bent into ring shape, its two ends turned diametrically across the plane of the ring to form grasping-fingers, the said ngers bent outwardly from each other at the center of the button, and concentric with the hole in the back of the button, the fingers extending beyond the bend, and brought together -in the central line of the button within the circle of the spring, but the ends of the fingers left free within the ring, and the said outward bends in the fingers adapted to gra-sp the stud beneath its head by the elasticity of the spring, the said spring arranged within the butt-on, substantially as described.

JAMES SPRUOE.

Witnesses:

T. R. HYDE, Jr., C. M. DE Mom?. 

